Had another couple great days on the river. With the last week for slot fish we made out really good at putting a few fish in the freezer for a later dinner. Tuesday Joe and I only had a few hours to fish with rain starting at 10 and not ending all day long. We stuck it out for an hour or so but getting wet we headed to Maggie’s for lunch. Before we quite we boated 1 slot striper, 1 small striper and about 15 catfish up to 11 pounds. Wednesday I hit the river an it earlier in case of rain but this day turned out to be a bright sunny day. Before I picked up Helen I picked up my 2 slot fish, 5 smaller fish and over 20 catfish all about a pound. After I picked Helen up we boated 1 slot fish, 6 smaller stripers and another 10 catfish up to 8 pounds. Both days it was a bunker bite with a bass feast topper. (Bass Feast is a Smelly Jelly fish formula) The best report of the week came from a fisherman that bought over 60 bunkers over the weekend catching over 20 slot fish, several over sized fish and just tons of catfish. He was fishing below the Tacony Bridge. Frank out Tuesday and Thursday caught 3 slot fish, 3 over sized fish and a bunch of catfish. He did best with bunker and shad strips. Anthony was out for a couple hours catching 1 slot fish and a bunch of catfish Wednesday afternoon. Tim and his wife were down fishing off the beach at the Tacony Monday catching 11 stripers all under 19 inches and several catfish all with bunker and bloodworms. Ryan was down river by the airport fishing bunker, bloodworms and fresh clams landing 2 bass 32 and 31 inches with lots of smaller bass and catfish. Way down river one fisherman landed a 41 inch 27 pound bass with a live white perch Tuesday in the rain. Heading up river several guys fishing the turnpike bridge up to Trenton have been catching lots of stripers 20 to 35 inches with live white perch, live eels and SP minnows. JR up in the bridges has been doing real good with poppers and crankbaits on fish 22 to 30 inches. Up at Lambertville the striper fishing has slowed a bit but the smallies are picking up each week. But the few stripers guys are catching fish in the rocks above the 202 bridge or fishing right in the fast water of the wing dam. Live eels, shad bodies, crankbaits and poppers working best. The smallies have been hitting live minnows, Zoom grubs and Senko’s the best. Up at the Water Gap the striper bite at night has still been pretty good fishing eels and live trout. The shad fishing here has slowed to 5 to 15 fish an evening with darts and spoons. Chris up at Hankins crushed the shad last Sunday with small darts and spoons. Between himself and his family they caught over 50 fish in the afternoon.

Fall’s Township Park one customer has still been doing very well with crappies fishing smaller minnows and twister tails. Now a few other guys fishing the same water have been picking up a few bass and pickerel with minnows, plastic worms and spinners. Magnolia Lake has been fair for smaller bass with plastic worms, shallow crankbaits and smaller spinner baits. Penn Warner again has been fair for perch, crappies, bass and pickerel for the bank fisherman with minnows, twister tails and jigging metal. Core Creek upper end slowed for bass but still a few decent fish being caught. These guys think the bass are all bedded up. Down in the spillway plenty of smaller white perch and bluegills hitting smaller minnows, wax worms and trout magnets. Jim had a couple decent evenings with trout at Levittown Lake fishing dry flies. Mixed in are plenty of bluegills. Giving’s Pond a few guys doing well with bass and crappies fishing minnows, nightcrawlers, plastic worms, spinner baits and spinners.

Joe said the lower Schuylkill River has been great for catfish and smaller stripers fishing bloodworms, bunker, shrimp, bagels and chicken livers. Most of the catfish have been 1 to 3 pounds with tons of stripers 12 to 18 inches. Further up at the Art Museum plenty of smaller stripers hitting bloodworms, white perch and 4 to 6 inch twister tails. Most of these fish have been 14 to 21 inches. In the evening and at night the walleye bite has still been fair fishing minnows, shad bodies and bucktails. Up at Gladwin plenty of catfish and carp hitting nightcrawlers, shrimp, live perch, bluegills and eels. The carp hitting corn, boilies and different carp baits. No flatheads but here catfish up to 8 pounds with carp up to 22 pounds caught this past week. On fishing Reading and Norristown catching plenty of smallies, rock bass, bluegills and catfish with minnows, spinners, twister tails and Senko worms.

Next to the Schuylkill for carp I had a good report up at Hulmeville Road with this fisherman catching several carp up to 18 pounds with corn and bagels. Mixed in he also caught over 25 catfish last weekend. In the Copper River Al picked up 9 carp 12 to 19 pounds with corn and tiger nut boilies. At the Frankford Arsenal and off Richmond Street a couple guys have been catching 1 to 3 carp an evening with different homemade carp baits. And at Core Creek one fisherman had a 29-inch carp off the dock picked up with a nightcrawler.

With the heavy winds last weekend the opening of flounder was kind of a bust. Now the few guys that did fish the back bays did pretty well with fish 14 to 19 inches. One fisherman out of Shark River had 3 days of limits and 3 other days of nothing. Anthony is down there right now catching plenty of smaller fish. In Grassy Sounds one fisherman had 6 keepers in 3 days with 20 throwbacks. Bluefishing still very good but the numbers and size did drop off last week. Most guys at LBI did great fishing chunked bunker, mackerel and mullet on a float rig. Most of the fish were 4 to 8 pounds. Off the jetties fish were caught with poppers, metal spoons and bucktails tipped with twister tails. Heard nothing from the Raritan Bay with the bad weather but there still should been good numbers of blues, stripers and flounder hitting up there. Drumfishing in the Delaware Bay has been picking up each week. Here fishing clams has been bringing fish up to 40 to 70 pounds. Mixed in have been a few stripers but these fish are far and few between. Also there have been a few weakfish being caught off Cape May Point. Bucktails and Fin-s Fish working best. Now south Wildwood one fisherman picked up a couple weakfish 18 to 22 inches off the jetties with bloodworms and grass shrimp. He is fishing these baits under a slip float. The last weakfish report came from John fishing off a jetty at Barnegat. John said lots of 14 to 17 inch fish hitting white bucktails, Fin-s fish and saltshakers in white or pink. Last weekend he had 3 keepers all over 24 inches. The guys that went up to Boston crushed the porgies and picked up lots of decent size sea bass. These guys did best with clams, cut mackerel and squid. Still no reports coming from the Chesapeake Bay.

Union Lake still very good for perch, pickerel, bass and crappies. John was down early Saturday fishing a couple hours with weedless frogs and top water poppers landing 5 largemouth bass. One fish 19 inches 4.8 pounds. Another fisherman out on Union picked up over 100 mixed fish with live minnows, twister tails, beetle spins and spinners. Third report came from a fisherman in the upper river that feeds Union catching monster yellow perch with 3 inch yellow twister tails. He was up there looking for bedded bass but was super happy to catch all those perch. Jerry still doing well with pickerel, bass and crappies fishing Elmer with minnows and twister tails. Richie out several times looking for bass but happy to land over 25 pickerel on pretty much everything he threw in the water. This was on Lake Lenape. Newton pretty good for bass with a snakehead here and there. Weedless frogs, buzz baits and Senko worms working best. One trout fisherman fished up at the Pequest catching only smaller bass and bluegills. So he headed down to the Raritan River to do well with bigger smallies and even picked up a 36 inch 32 pound carp with a live minnow. One fisherman in the pits off Route 9 in outside of Wildwood had a couple good evenings with bass fishing Rapala crankbaits, spinner baits and bigger plastic worms. He said the only problem is the mosquitoes and ticks.

Well that is all I have for you this week. Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and this coming week the weather looks like it will hold so get out catch some fish and please send me a few fishing reports. Bill